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Non-material Values of Nature in the US: Summary of the National Assessment of US Nature

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Tuesday, March 31, 2026
4pm to 5:30pm PT

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Mitchell Earth Sciences, Hartley Conference Center
397 Panama Mall, Stanford, CA 94305
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The Facing the Anthropocene: Interdisciplinary Approaches workshop presents:
 
"Non-material Values of Nature in the US: Summary of the National Assessment of US Nature"
Rachelle Gould (University of Vermont)
Tuesday, March 31st, 2026 | 4:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. (PST)
Hartley Conference Center (397 Panama Mall, Stanford, CA)
 
Abstract: In 2024, the Biden administration launched the first-ever National Nature Assessment; in 2025, the Trump administration cancelled the Assessment, or at least federal support for it. In the ensuing months, the author team continued work on the assessment, which is now out for public review under a new NGO, The Nature Record (www.naturerecord.org/chapters). Dr. Rachelle Gould is the Chapter Lead for the Assessment’s Culture Chapter (Culture and Relationships with Nature in the U.S.). This chapter focuses primarily on non-material values associated with human-nature relationships: values related to, for instance, spirituality, heritage, mental health, bequest, and stewardship. In this talk, Dr. Gould will first recognize the imperfection of the idea of nonmaterial values, given that interactions with nature almost always include material and nonmaterial components. She will then summarize the Assessment’s culture chapter (which, again, you can access at the link above). She will also summarize a recently submitted manuscript that shares the analytical review of 600+ scholarly research papers that underlies the assessment chapter. Both of these products are in review (public and peer), so feedback from attendees will thus feed into revisions of the two versions of this work. Please join us and weigh in!  
 
Bio: Rachelle Gould is an Associate Professor at the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources and Faculty Fellow at the Gund Institute for Environment (University of Vermont). Prof. Gould's collaborative interdisciplinary research investigates the relationships between ecosystems and well-being, focusing on the intersection of environmental values, learning, and human behavior. Issues of equity and inclusion are central to all of her work. All of her projects include a substantial focus on understanding heterogeneity in multiple domains – e.g., in perspectives on “the environment;” in the benefits people receive from ecosystems; and in how environmental learning happens. Those projects also explore how to inform equitable decision-making in the face of that heterogeneity.

Prof. Gould has two research areas: Cultural Ecosystem Services (and nonmaterial values of ecosystems, more generally), and Environmental Education. Using the lens of Cultural Ecosystem Services, she examines how nature improves well-being in nonmaterial ways. Using the lens of environmental education, she explores how people learn about the environment, and how that learning does (and does not) connect to behavior.

Prof. Gould was a Lead Author on the United Nations IPBES Values Assessment (IPBES = Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services), which was released in August 2022. For the 2022-2023 academic year, she is on a Fulbright fellowship working to implement some of the Assessment’s recommendations.

Prof. Gould and her research group also have projects underway in multiple places, from Vermont to Hawaii’s Big Island. Partnering with communities and organizations is an important part of this work; learn more about the group’s partners.

 
This Workshop is sponsored by the Stanford Humanities Center and made possible by support from an anonymous donor, former Fellows, the Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society.
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